Pregnancy has it's down sides..

that is for sure.  Today is the 3rd day of leg cramp for me. That is despite taking magnesium supplements, using Magnesium phosphate topical cream and drinking lots of water. It is stopping me from sleeping - hence the posting in the middle of the night.

I also discovered last night that my tolerance for cutting out patterns has reduced by a very large amount in the past two weeks! I went to the local fabric store yesterday to buy some more Interlock to make a few more Nursing friendly nightdresses and thought that I would just get on with cutting them out. I washed the fabric as soon as I got home and as soon as the little one was in bed I set to cutting. I think one of the biggest problems was that I couldn't find my sewing scissors anywhere and I had to use the rotary cutter - which requires being at a certain angle. So there I was set up on the floor, surrounded by 2.5 Yds of difficult to fold stretch interlock in my 3rd trimester pregnant state trying to cut this pattern out 3 times as quickly as I could.

Add to that the 38 degree temperature here today (100.4F - Crazy!) and it just wasn't all that pleasant.

It is going to be another one of those days today so I am going to try my hardest to stay indoors in the air conditioning for the most of the day.

How is my Vintage pattern going? Some people might be wondering.

It sits on my bedside table daunting me right now. I think that part of me doesn't want to commit to the thinking involved in grading the pattern up a couple of sizes. I also don't really have any way of fitting it correctly and from what I can tell with some of these Vintage pattern muslin's that are coming through on the sew along the seem to often need some serious adjustments.

I seriously wish that plain poplin or Calico was cheaper than it is here in Australia so that I didn't feel like I was throwing money down the drain to make a muslin !

Just Love a Bargain!

Don't you just love it when you have one of those *score* moments. Today I dropped in very briefly to the local St Vincents De Paul thrift shop for a quick look on my lunch break.

As always I has a little browse through the patterns and found this for the grand sum of 50c.

It is cut out in my non-pregnant size 12 and as far as I can tell all the pieces are there.

Sweet - as I normally suck at thrifting!

I have a pattern review and a Valentines day tutorial in the works but I"m not sure it will happen until next week as I am heading to Brisbane this weekend for a wedding.  Ahhh my hometown...oh how I love thee.

Make it Perfect - Sweet Dreams PJ's

After my dismal failure with the stretch sewing last night I am still thinking about all that and need to do a little more research. So today I moved on to the PJ pants.

As with all Make it Perfect patterns the instructions were clear and easy to follow and the sizing is fairly true.

I bought some pretty floral cottons, have some quilting cotton in my stash and discovered a stash of thrifted sheets that will make perfect PJ's.

Given the third trimester pregnancy status and the fact that I tend to have a bit of a tummy for a while after having a baby I chose to make the large.


I made one pair up in this size and before putting in the elastic tried them on for size. They fit - just - and I'm not really sure how the fit will change when I don't have a pregnant belly. The only part that concerned me was that they were a little tight through the seat - not so tight that I couldn't sit down - just tighter than you want a pair of PJ's to be. So I continued on and put the elastic in and decided that I would make another pair to try out an alteration for this tightness.

After a bit of research I discovered that adding some width to the outer leg seam should cover me for tightness across the front of the pants - the rear bottom part seemed fine as did the crotch length so I decided that it was the width that needed altering. As it turns out I was right - I added 5/8" to the outer leg seam of both the front and back pieces and sewed it together.

Fixed the problem and they are now much more comfortable.

I realise that when I am no longer pregnant these PJ's will probably be quite big on me - but I figure that it is much easier to take a pair of pants in to be smaller than it is to make them bigger - and we are going for comfort above all else here.

Now I have three more pairs to make up...

Posted @ My Creative Space - Here

Back to the sewing machine

I know it has been a week or so since I posted but I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount of things going on at the moment and sewing was the last thing on my  mind.

However, as is very characteristic of me I have now gone to the other extreme and am on a bit of a sewing binge.

I started obsessively thinking this week about what I am going to wear when I am still in hospital after having the baby. Last time I was hopelessly under prepared in the way of pretty PJ's and nursing friendly access clothes - but hey H boy was my first and I really had no idea!

The jusry is quite split on weather or not to wear comfy street clothes, lounge clothes or PJ's in hospital. I was toying with the idea of yoga pants and nursing friendly tops - and I will probably still throw in a few of these. However, I ended up deciding on pretty PJ's - as I know that I'll get a lot of use out of them throughout winter.

So I began scouring the internet and this is what I came up with:

Megan Nielsen

Make it Perfect

I will combine the PJ pants with some purchased white nursing tops from Kmart (they are only $10 - I couldn't buy fabric for that price!). The pants don't really bother me - I have made many Make it Perfect patterns before and they always turn out well.

However after having a bit of a pattern drafting/cutting out session yesterday - 

I found some white cotton Lycra in the stash to have a play with the sleep bra pattern before I commit my pretty fabric. All I can say is it was a dismal fail and I think I need ALOT of work and practice sewing stretch before I get on with the night dress. Nothing like a challenge though hey!

I am also keeping track of what I spend on this little venture because I had contemplated just buying some pretty PJ's from Peter Alexander - but for what I have bought in material supplies and patterns ( A$85) I would have only been able to get 2 pairs of pants - pretty as they are, and they wouldn't have been made just for me.

For my A$85 I will get Four pairs of PJ pants and one nightdress. (Edit: Make that 5 pairs of PJ pants - I just found a cute old sheet in the cupboard that I am going to  have a play around with ...more info to come.)

Keep calm and....

I'm not going to post a pic of the iconic poster but let me just say that this morning I wish I could negate all parental responsibility and go here:

One of those days where I am counting down the minutes until the H boy falls asleep and I get two hours of undiluted peace.

xoxo

Pictures from my Garden

I work on my garden quite sporadically - it is quite nice - just needs a bit of reorganization here and there. A spot of light rain and good lighting conditions proved too hard to resist taking some pics.

Queensland Floods

http://www.abc.net.au/news/

While I live in Canberra now - I find it so surreal to see the city I grew up in underwater. I was born in Brisbane and lived there for 29 years and it is and always will be my home. I love that city so much that I do in fact dream about one day moving back there.

My friends and family are thankfully all in higher parts of Brisbane - as was our old home - but that doesn't take away from the devastation that these flood have and will continue to cause some families.

I feel quite helpless and wish that I could be there in person to help in some way. My obligations here prevent that unfortunately but we have donated money to the Flood Appeal - and you can too.

Just follow these links:

Donate to the Premier's Appeal - if you want to direct $$$$ directly then this is the best place to donate. Just go here and more information is here. 

There is also an Auction being run by Toni Coward of Make it Perfect fame - multiple talented deigners and crafters auctioning their goods. Go here if you want to see more.

These are just a few of the options available.

We are heading up to Brisbane in two weeks for a wedding (If it can still go ahead) and it will be so fascinating and saddening at the same time to witness the aftermath.